Utah Eyes Slashing Senior Year Of High School To Save Money

Imagine being forced to skip your senior year of high school. Or having the option.

If you live in Utah, that could become a reality. In an effort to bridge a $700 million budget shortfall, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars has put forth a plan to eliminate 12th grade in high school, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Facing a wealth of criticism from parents, teachers and students alike, Buttars defended a scaled down version of the idea wherein students simply had the option to exit before their final year, claiming the proposal could save the state about $60 million…

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why not, when i was a senior me and all my friends were talking BS classes and skating by because we only needed like half a credit to graduate

larmar

If you would have went on to college instead of the Wendy's drive thru, you could have used your Senior year to get as many prerequisites as possible out of the way.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

if people are ready for college thaey shold go to college not waste public funds that could be used for people that need the help

Hypnos!

Public education = “waste [of] public funds”? You been watching some fox news lately, Sean?

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

if you are ready to move on and don't you are wasting money and your own time,and using up resources that could be better spent on children that aren't quite ready for what ever reason.

honu

Where's the evidence that demonstrates that classes students take in 12th grade are useless enough to cut a years worth of education to go to college? The senator just threw that proposal out there without statistics or studies that would support a proposal like this. I'm not saying all students need to go through all the grades in order to go to college. There're smart kids who skip grades all the time but that's on a case by case basis. As a statewide policy that's promoted just because the state needs money? How about legalizing pot and taxing it? 60 mil easy.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

well I'm for legalizing most things, and punishing people who do stupid things while using,I'm also for making attending school optional, get the garbage that doesn't want to be there out and spend resources on the people that will do something with them.It is very easy to graduate early I was a lazy child that wasted that chance and had to do some things I didn't like to earn another chance and I only needed a half credit my final year, If people aren't going to go to college why waste their time and school resources keeping them their. many good careers don't need a college education, I say let people graduate soon as they are ready so they can get on with their lives.

honu

I'm for punishing people who do stupid things while using also. Like being hauled in for acting drunk and disorderly.

I'll agree with your ideas on using resources wisely with students that will do something with them. But it's an easy statement to make. Harder to come up with a system that would actually do that. But isn't that what kind of happens already? Students that don't want to go to school drop out. Some people I've met who dropped out early have done well. And I admire the hell out of them. Some haven't. There's something to be said for having a system in place to help people figure things out for awhile too. School provides that. The military does it too.

Religion provides a system to comfort people with a worldview that gets them through the day until they wake up enough to see a bigger picture.

larmar

Ah compassionate conservatism.

Name

I completely fail to understand the liberal logic of forcing schooling. If a kid doesn't want to be there, he won't learn. And if he's learned what he should, he doesn't need to be there. Any halfwit who was taught to read the old-fashioned (read: right) way — phonics — can ace a GED exam by the end of 8th grade.

Since so many high schools have cut vocational programs and focused on the “college or die” mantra, there's little use for high schools for youths who have neither the aptitude nor the desire to pursue the “liberal arts.” We still need plumbers to fix stuff for you Ph.D's who don't know your ass from a p-trap.

honu

wow. um, where did you get this notion of 'Liberal logic of forcing schooling?' Whatever your rationalizations for not going to college, no one is forcing anyone to go to school except maybe the parents. Sure there is a strong societal pressure to and even from some schools that get paid by the government to keep their numbers up but in the end, no one HAS to stay in school. And from my personal experience, there's douchebags who are Phd's and their are douchebags who never went past 8th grade. There's intelligent, productive, good people who never went to college and there are practical, productive, good people who have degrees coming out of their assholes. Way to make a blanket statement that is as false as it is ignorant. And btw, I'm not one of your “Ph.D's who don't know your ass from a p-trap”

Name

“And btw, I'm not one of your “Ph.D's who don't know your ass from a p-trap”

Okay, perhaps one who may have narrowly escaped post-graduate education with little more reading comprehension than a rhesus monkey. Half of your rant is dedicated to taking umbrage at something I didn't say.

I humbly congratulate you on your mad plumbing skills, but would you please be so kind as to direct your anger toward the school system that has so clearly failed you? Thanks.

honu

You're probably not gonna read this since it's already a day old but I didn't take umbrage at something you didn't say. I took umbrage with something you said. Clearly too. I went to college. Personally I could care less if you have or anyone else has for that matter. Education these days can be had through a variety of outlets depending on your natural abilities. The system is broken but I have no anger towards the system. I have anger at people like you who label institutions and people in a certain way that in no way reflects the reality. Since when is education a liberal thing?

rfw888

Last time I checked, if you don't send your kid to school, the police will eventually put you in jail. sounds like force to me.

jjj

actually this is a damn good idea. the kids earn an extra year to explore their options. i wish i were a youngster in utah right now!

5by5

Well at least Buttars is being honest about Republican goals.

Republicans require a dumb-as-dirt populous to be stupid enough to vote for them, or they don't get elected (without using election fraud), and have been gutting our educational system with the “death of a thousand cuts” for the last 40 years.

He's just continuing their aggressively anti-intellectual campaign.

Name

As if all Democrat voters were tenured, pointy-headed intellectuals! Did you not see the interviews of black — I mean, inner-city — youth brigades at the polls for Obama? Pure gut racism combined with raw institutionalized anti-intellectualism. Isn't that something the pointy-heads rail against? Shouldn't you have discounted those votes?

The sad reality is that the two-party system itself is what depends on a gullible public. They are like the goons and good guys of WWF — friends backstage. It's precisely why nothing ever changes for the better in government. It's why Congress passes laws none of them have bothered to read. It's why the Constitution erodes, taxes go up, debt goes up, and wars continue unabated. Neither party holds a monopoly on bad policy or foolish constituency. Awake, smell coffee.

Broken Finger

Judging by this article and the majority of the comments here (except for the always spot on 5by5), I would like to point out that definitions for the words “conservative” and “liberal” are in such an apparent state of flux that they literally have no meaning.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

we'll be seeing more if this,my state so far in debt it's crazy, thanks governor rod,california is so strapped state offices can't even afford paper,if the recession keeps at it, and i don't see why it wouldn't, I think we'll see lots more states in dire trouble if not outright failure, bicker all you want about liberal vs. conservative but when states have no money politics wont matter

rfw888

My favorite part of my senior year in public school was correcting my teacher's spelling and math. Senior year was boring, because in almost every class, the first five minutes proved to me that my “teachers” knew less about the subjects they were “teaching” than I did. Some of them took this well, some didn't. Everything I've learned and retained, I've taught myself ( after mom taught me to read at age 4) . Public schools taught me to cheat, lie, and other “social ” skills, but didn't really do a lot to prepare me for life, except for the aforementioned “social” skills. If I ever change my mind about being a parent, (not too likely), I would never allow my children to attend a public school. Thanks, but no thanks, if my kid needs brainwashed, I'll be a responsible parent, and do it myself.